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Caring for Leather

August 03, 2015

By Michaela Cook

10

The classic leather jacket is a must have staple of many people’s wardrobes, and is a piece that has continued to remain fashionable for all ages and genders throughout the decades. From David Bowie and Iggy Pop, to Princess Kate, and even your own gran the leather jacket has remained essential and popular.

The continued popularity and relevance of leather garments drove us at Click Dryclean to ask the owner of one of our cleaners, Whitley’s Cleaners how his shop takes care of leather garments.

“Leather and Suede require specialist cleaning. Firstly we check the manufacturers' cleaning label. This is very important as we check for any special cleaning requirements for the garment and we take into account things like the temperature the garment should be cleaned at and what substances can be used on the item. Before the actual cleaning of the garment, we check and wipe down the garment with a well wrung cloth to remove any visible dirt and then proceed to the actual cleaning process. Items are then cleaned on pre-programmed cycles in accordance with the manufacturer's cleaning label.”

While leather garments remain very popular, some people may not know how to properly care for them at home, so we asked Oskan if he had some tips on what to do.

“In all cases, the manufacturer's label should always be checked in the first instance. However, a very basic tip for anyone wishing to revive their leather garment would be to either use an oil (cooking oil is good) to gently rub dirt off the garment or use saddle soap, wax or leather conditioner to revive the garment.”

The owner of Whitley’s Cleaners, Oskan, has been in the cleaning business for 28 years, starting of as a Hoffman presser when he was 19 and acquiring his first shop at West Wickham in 1999. Since then he has gone on to acquire more shops, and has recently completely revamped his business, updating the name, color scheme, and logo.

Oskan’s years of experience have contributed to a reputation of excellence, leading his business to clean especially delicate and challenging garments.

“We have contracts with theatres and the most interesting items have to be the costumes. The best one was the outfits for one of the shows of Wicked and in particular The Wizard's outfit was the best. We always use our Gold Service for these types of cleaning and they are cleaned on a very delicate dry clean programme in a net and we adhere to each cleaning label instructions for that particular outfit.”

In the 28 years that he has been in the business, Oskan has seen how changes in technology have fueled changes in his industry.

“What I can say about the industry is that due to the continued development of technology, we too have to move with the times and a simple example would be the transition between a ticketing book to an electronic ticketing system which is far more efficient.”

It is Oskan’s awareness of the importance of technology in improving the customer experience is what influenced him to join Click Dryclean.

“As mentioned, I believe that we need to move with the times. We live in a day and age whereby convenience has become a necessity and since the recession, customers have become more aware of their needs and look to get for more for their money and at their convenience. Since email, we have now moved into another era of websites and app technology and Click Dryclean will cater for the moving times and help bring dry cleaning services to a complete wider audience. My business has been updated to cater for the new day and age that we live in. We have thought how further we can cater for customers and brought in various systems to further enhance our customer services. It makes sense to be with Click Dryclean as this is definitely the way going forward and I believe will be very successful.”

Just like the leather jacket, the cleaning industry has moved with the times, but it is the Click Dryclean APP that will push it into the future.